While We're Apart
by Rowanell19
Summary: Logan left for London two weeks ago and already trying to cope with that fact, things don't seem to be getting much better for Rory. Lorelai tries her best to be there for her daughter and give hope in this delicate time, but life has its own twists.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: Little Pink Postcards **

Rory Gilmore had been waiting all day for just one simple phone call. Just one.

Two weeks ago, her boyfriend, Logan, had left for London.

The last she had spoken to Logan was earlier that morning and after his continuous promising to call her back before seven that night, she was still waiting, and it was now nearing eight o'clock.

"Darn you, Logan," she muttered disappointingly to herself, flipping open the top of her cell phone and dialing a number in which she had called countless times over the years. She was wearing simple blue jeans that day, with a dark green tank top under a black jacket. Rory's bangs swept over her eyes in the familiar fashion and her long dark hair was curled at the ends.

The phone on the other end ringed four times, causing Rory to grow more impatient than normal and tap her fingers on the granite countertop of her and what used to be Logan's apartment.

Finally, the person on the other end picked up.

"Hey Rory," Lorelai said into the phone, taking a sip from the mug of warm hot chocolate she was holding. "What's wrong?"

She was seated snuggled into the side of her couch, a blanket across her lap and a favorite old black and white movie playing on the TV screen in front of her. Lorelai was dressed in her new favorite pair of pajamas, dark blue with little white rabbits on them, bought only because her mother had strongly detested against "such a thing."

Rory's eyebrows went together in confusion. "Wait, how did you know something was wrong?"

"Oh don't you know sweetie?" Lorelai said in an innocent voice. "It a mother daughter thing."

"It is?"

"Yes. Besides, it's late on a Tuesday night and it's almost eight o'clock. A daughter would not call her mother at this time of day, might I add again that it's a Tuesday, without something being wrong."

Rory was silent for a moment and thought about this, but she knew not to argue against her mother's interesting logic. She was right after all, she was calling to complain so there must have been truth in it somewhere.

"Yeah ok, well, Logan promised to call me before seven and you see what time it is now. I don't know if I can wait anymore, I've really been waiting to talk to him all day."

"Have you tried getting a hold of him?" Lorelai suggested.

"No…" Rory said, yet again with another sigh. "But Logan's never missed a call time in the last two weeks since he's been gone… maybe something happened."

"I doubt it," her mother replied in a dull tone, but then added enthusiastically, "but if it makes you feel any better, he probably hasn't called you back because his father has him working so hard over in London that he broke and ate his cell phone just to survive during one of those long and frequent business chats."

Rory leaned back against the counter of the kitchen. "Isn't that a little extreme?"

"Have you ever been alone with grandma or grandpa?"

"Good point."

There was a short pause, and Rory's eyes wandered around the room, unsuccessfully trying to find something that would take her mind off Logan. Nothing helped.

"Well hey mom, can I come over?" she asked, turning slightly to look at the clock above to stove. "If I stay here any longer I'll end up going crazy."

"Of course you can. But what kind of crazy, Edger Allen Poe crazy or Emily Gilmore crazy?"

"Both," Rory replied affirmatively.

"Oh that sounds bad. You better get over here before you're lost to me forever and I'll never ever _ever _see my Rory again!"

"Are you done?"

Lorelai smiled, she was a natural born extremist. "Yes I am, see you in a bit."

Rory snapped the front of her cell phone down and put it back within her purse that rested on the island of the kitchen, taking hold of it and making sure the lights were shut off before leaving the apartment. She walked into the hallway and turned around to lock the door, taking her time. It was becoming more hard each day to walk in and not find Logan waiting for her, or at least feel again the comfort of knowing that he would be back sometime late that day and be with her. Despite everything they'd been through, Rory still loved him, and she had come to the conclusion not so long ago that she always would in someway. Christmas was still a little far off, and Rory felt down at the fact that the only time they could see each other was on the holidays.

However that was the way it was, and she was going to have to deal with it.

Turning away from the locked door, Rory took a step forward and heard something scuffle along the ground beneath her foot, almost like paper. Her eyebrows went together in slight confusion and she picked a small rectangular piece of paper from the floor, finding instead that it was a post card addressed to where she lived.

She turned it over to the front side and observed it. Most postcards had scenery on the front or beautiful tropical places or animals or at least _something_, but nothing was on this one, except the hot pink color which consumed its every inch and a small written note. The return address was from London, but not only that, it matched the same address of the place in which Logan was staying.

Already, Rory knew she wasn't going to like this.

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"Hey stranger," Lorelai greeted with a smile as she pulled open the front door.

No more than a few moments ago she'd heard the knock on the front door that she'd been waiting for and finished setting up the nicely arranged donut boxes on top of the larger one that held a giant pizza.

Rory wasted no time coming through the door and wore a mixture of a confused and hurt expression as she made her way into the living room and sat heavily on the couch. Her gaze stayed solidly on the coffee table before her, scanning over the donuts and pizza boxes. Lorelai followed after her, noticing her daughter's weary expression.

"Ohh let me guess," she said in a dramatized tone. "Kirk caught you before you were able to reach the front door and tried selling you chocolate, and might I add horrible tasting owls and _you_ tried one."

Rory sighed in response, but the heaviness she felt was pushed aside a moment by a hint of curiosity. "Kirk's selling chocolate owls?"

"Yeah…" Lorelai confirmed. "I guess he gave up on the whole real estate thing."

There was a pause between them. Lorelai looked over the many boxes she had placed on the table before them on the couch and grabbed one of the very colorful donut ones, opening it up and pulling out a double coated chocolate one.

"Here," she said, handing it to Rory. "Eat up and tell me everything that's wrong. What's been bothering you?"

Rory took the donut from her mother and bit off a small bite, wondering _where _to begin.

"Well, everything was fine and I was getting along ok," she said, taking a bigger bite of the donut this time. "But when Logan missed the time he'd promised he'd call today, by the way he still hasn't called, I thought I was going to go nuts. I really do miss him mom."

"Listen, I know you do hun."

"But wait, that's not it," Rory continued.

All the time that Rory had been speaking her eyes were either on the carpet… or the TV in which the volume was muted… or anywhere else than her mother. She knew her voice was probably giving it away, but she didn't want her mom to be able to fully see the worry she had.

"As I was leaving the apartment to come here… I found this."

Reaching into the pocket of her coat, she withdrew the small and folded hot pink postcard. Lorelai furrowed her eyebrows together and cast a concerned look at Rory before unfolding the pink postcard and reading it.

"Oh my gosh Rory," she said after reading it, her eyebrows raised and in complete seriousness. One of her hands lay upon her chest as she looked at her daughter, thinking about how horrible this postcard was and how bad it might be affecting her.

"Are you sure he's worth all this?" Lorelai quickly asked, her voice affirmative.

Rory shook her head. "I told you it was bad… I don't know."

She crossed her legs and arms, already having set down the half eaten donut on a napkin on top of the coffee table. Logan… and all the trouble he brought.

No other boyfriend had been like this had they? To this extreme?

None had caused her this much hurt before… at least not three whole times in a row.

"Anyway, you know what's going on now," Rory said defeated. "But I don't want to talk about it."

"Well honey," Lorelai replied, tossing the pink postcard onto the table and leaning back into the couch. "When it comes to Logan you never want to talk about it. I really think you should and get all that you're feeling off your chest. You _know _that I'm always here to listen to whatever you have to say. I don't care if it gets to the point where my greatest desire would be to staple your mouth shut, just let it all out."

"Maybe in the morning."

Rory rose from the couch and started into the kitchen, Lorelai immediately getting up and following behind her. The donuts and pizza would have to wait.

"I'm serious," she told her daughter, finding a spot to lean against the counter once they had fully entered the kitchen.

"So was I," came Rory's dull answer from her old room. The door closed shut, and Lorelai knew from experience that in a situation like this, it wouldn't be opened again until morning. What could have been a fun night of food and movies turned out be crushed, either because of Logan or the secret sender or both. Lorelai let out a sigh of her own and let the pizza grow cold in the living room as she took to washing the dishes, something she had long procrastinated to do that day.

"Darn you Logan," she muttered with anger, scrubbing last weeks left overs from a plate with more force than necessary.

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Rory fluffed up the pillows of her old bed and lay down beneath the covers, dressed in a pair of her mothers' pajamas and wishing that she and Logan's relationship, for once, could have a moment without any complications. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel them start to sting. Tears were on the way.

"No," she said determinedly to herself. "I'm not going to lay here and cry about this."

She covered her head with one of the pillows, now unable to see that her cell phone charging over on the other side of the room was lighting up. However before she went to bed, Rory had turned her ringer off for the night.

Logan was calling.

_Rory,_

_If you think Logan acted horribly after your supposed breakup when you found out about everything at his sisters wedding, then you should see how openly he acts here, now that you can't "have him on a leash" anymore, or so he says. Oops, I think I've already said too much. Anyway, wish you the best at Yale. _

And that was what contents were written, very neatly and in beautiful handwriting, upon the little pink postcard.


	2. Chapter 2

_Sorry for the delay. Thanks too all of you that have read and reviewed. But remember, more reviews mean quicker posts because I get more inspired. I'm not asking for anything long, just a simple whether you liked the chapter or not would be great. However, here's chapter two!_

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**Chapter Two: No, No, We're Fine. **

Rory woke up late the next morning.

She yawned, stretching out on her bed and opening her eyes, squinting for a few moments before she became used to the sun that shone through the curtains of her room.

"Go away…" she muttered to the rays of light, pulling a stray pillow back over top her head.

Clangs and a variety of other noises could be heard from the kitchen, and Rory knew that her mother had wasted no time waking up, unlike what she had preferred to do.

Groaning, Rory sat up and tossed the pillow to the floor, knowing that Lorelai would continue to purposely make those noises while she cooked just to drive her out of the room.

"Ok," she muttered, standing from the bed and walking over still half asleep to her bedroom door. "You win, I'm up."

The kitchen was even brighter than her room had been, and Rory stood a few minutes in the doorway waiting for her eyes to adjust as her mother took notice.

"Finally you're up," Lorelai said with a smile, although Rory didn't doubt the mischievousness behind it.

"Of course I am," she said, still groggy, walking from the door and sitting down at the kitchen table. "Who could get some sleep with a crazy mother banging around early in the morning?"

"Did you say _early in the morning_?" Lorelai asked, giving her daughter a pretend confused look before sitting down beside her at the table. "You might want to check the clock Rory, it's almost one o'clock."

Rory yawned. "Really?"

"Yes," her mother replied with new enthusiasm. "Oh and look, after you eat the breakfast I so graciously made you---or more like warmed up---how about we stop down at Luke's, grab some coffee, and prepare for a day of all out crazy spend-all-the-money-you-own shopping!"

Rory raised one of her eyebrows. "Are you trying to cheer me up?"

"Is it working?"

She pretended to consider it a moment, before a smile lit her face. "Yes! Sounds great mom."

"Great! Oh and be sure to tell the Rory that was here last night that I like the one better today."

"No problem, she just got the message."

"Good," Lorelai replied, rising from her seat and moving over to the stove. "Now time for some breakfast." She withdrew two bowls from the cabinets and placed one in front of her seat and Rory, moving back over to the stove again to acquire the pan she'd been working with not long before. Her daughter watched as she did this, and for the first time seemed to take notice of the pajama's Lorelai was wearing.

"Where did those come from?" she asked.

Lorelai turned around from the stove with the pot handle in her hand, using a long wooden spoon to transfer the food inside into their bowls. "What's what? Oh these pajamas?" she laughed a little and returned the pan to the stove once she was finished with it. Taking her seat at the table again, she continued. "Well, your grandmother paid me an unexpected and unwanted visit at the Inn the other day to tell me about an up coming game at Yale that she was so certain I had no idea about since I'm bad mother and apparently it means so much too you, but anyway to keep it short, she didn't like what I was wearing."

Rory put her hands in her lap, the breakfast that lay before them in bowls forgotten at the moment.

"What were you wearing mom?"

"That cute grey jacket and skirt with the white blouse that we agreed would look stunning on me when I bought it."

"That outfit?" Rory said, raising her eyebrows. "Why didn't she like it? It _does_ look stunning on you."

"I know!" Lorelai replied with surprise. "But who knows, I don't put it past her. So anyway, she dragged me all the way down to a store in Hartford where she insisted I buy something nicer to wear to 'impress the guests' when I arrive to work so…."

Lorelai gave a triumphant smile and took hold of the rims of the pajama shirt, holding it out and brining great attention to the white rabbits with pink noses that jumped around on the silk like fabric. "I bought this, and by the look on her face, I'm sure I've never pleased my mother more."

Rory let out a laugh. "Mom, you're horrible."

She could always count on her mother to bring something or some funny story into the day, and how much more relaxed Rory felt after that simple laugh. Oddly enough, it seemed to be just what she needed to shed the invisible weight that had cast over her since reading the postcard. Just because it was another day didn't make the ebbing pain any less, but at least she had something to look forward to, and that was shopping. Any girls cure, or at least, she would find out.

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After having their breakfast, which consisted of warmed up Chinese mixed together as one and a long conversation about why some of the rice grains appeared green, Lorelai and Rory got ready to visit Luke's Diner and shop, shop, shop.

Rory came out of the bathroom that was connected to her old room, hair freshly washed and curled slightly for the day. Deciding to dress quite casual, she put on a plain black t-shirt with a white tank top underneath that showed its self at the rims and as always a comfortable pair of blue jeans.

She walked over to the mirror above her vanity and skimmed her eyes over her appearance. A small flashing green light caught her attention, for she could see it reflecting from farther in the room and into the mirror. Rory, stood frozen a moment, watching the tiny green light flash on her now charged cell phone, knowing she'd missed a call.

Taking a quick breath of air she turned from the mirror and walked over, trying to act as if the missed call signal hadn't affected her at all. She reached down and took a hold of the cell phone from the table, raising it and unplugging the charge cord from its side. Taking another small preparation breath, Rory opened the top and scanned her eyes over the screen.

As it turned out, she didn't have a missed call, she had two.

Rory's eyes gazed upon the name _Logan_ on her screen. So, he had called.

Heartache, and even a bit of rejection toward him filled her, and slowly, she pressed a button to view the next missed call.

All previous instilled feelings vanished as two kinds of surprise suddenly struck her.

One being who else had called, and how… unexpected.

Second, Lorelai.

"Hey are you ready for a day on the town?" her mother announced, coming into the room behind her. Instantly, Rory snapped the top of her cell phone shut, all the while trying to ignore the fact that her eyes were so wide.

"Oh… yeah mom," she said, keeping her back to her.

Lorelai looked at her daughter, seeing that her back was too her and it wasn't hard to guess that she had stumbled in on something. She knew Rory was holding her cell phone; the charging cord was detached on the floor.

"So I was watching this show last night," Lorelai started quickly. "Where this woman was interviewing different people to replace the maid of hers that had died because of a rare and incurable disease. During an interview she went into the kitchen to get a drink and when she returned, both her husband and the maid were standing close together with their clothes messed up. _Obviously, _something had happened when she was in the other room. So Rory, is it just me or why do I suddenly feel like the extremely rich wife that knows something has gone on---minus the extremely rich part?"

"…it's just you," Rory replied in a hesitant voice. She knew she was terrible at hiding things.

"Rory…"

She sighed. Defeatedly, Rory turned around to face her, looking down at the cell phone she held in her hand. "Logan called."

Lorelai was silent for a moment. "Oh… did he leave a message?"

"Maybe," Rory confessed. "I have two missed calls but only one voice mail."

"Did Lane call you? She'll love that you're back in town."

"No," Rory said, shaking her head. "Jess did."

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Sitting upon one of the many stools that lined the counter, Lorelai and Rory made themselves comfortable as they sat in wait for Luke to take their orders. Rory looked around the place absently, trying to get her mind off of the two men that plagued her today, Logan and Jess.

Why Jess had called she labeled as an unsolved mystery but Rory wasn't planning on waiting too long to find out. To see his name on her cell phone screen, to see that he had called… a few old feelings were brought to life in that moment, but thinking of Logan, she reluctantly suppressed them.

"I'm surprised you wanted to come here," Rory said, suddenly turning to look at Lorelai while she rested her chin in her hand. "I thought you and Luke---"

Lorelai smiled, shaking her head. "No, no, we're fine. After we called off the engagement we decided that we can still continue being friends… you know, returning to how things were before. Luke's over it like I am and its done with. Salt over the shoulder and water under the bridge."

"I'm glad you guys have it worked out then," offered Rory, although she knew things between the two weren't as grand as her mother tried to convince her of.

"And what would you ladies like today?"

Both Lorelai and Rory were taken by surprise at Luke's sudden appearance before them at the counter, accompanied by his usually dull and annoyed but trying-to-be-pleasant-and-failing-horribly tone. He was wearing his normal lumber jack appearing clothes, and always with a blue backwards had on top of his head. Rory raised her eyebrows, maybe things had returned to normal unlike she thought.

"Two cups of coffee please and toast with bunny shaped jam on top of them."

"Bunny shaped jam?" Luke repeated apprehensively.

"Yes sir, I do believe that's what I said," Lorelai replied with a smile. She turned to Rory. "Is that what I said, yes, that's what I said sir. Bunny shaped jam."

Lorelai had turned back to Luke now, who was already writing something down on his order pad. "Right…" he responded, looking at her. "How about I get you two what you normally have, french fries and a burger."

"Oh fine," Lorelai said in false disappointment. "You win. Two burgers it is."

Luke gave her a look and filled each of their mugs with coffee before disappearing from behind the counter and into the kitchen.

"Wow, I guess things really are going great between the two of you," Rory said, not hiding the surprise and happiness for her mother in her voice.

Lorelai had a little bit more trouble smiling this time. "Yeah… great, like I said before babe."

Rory smiled and returned to looking absently around the diner when there was a sudden vibration in her pocket, where her cell phone was, and she knew someone was trying to call her. Removing it from her pocket she purposely didn't look to see who was calling her before pressing send and putting the phone up to her ear.

"Rory? Hey, it's Jess."

If Rory's blank stare at the coffee pots lasted any longer, the glass would surely break.

"So is anyone there?"

"Ah, um yes, I'm here," she suddenly blurted, finding her voice. "It's just that I didn't expect you to call and you caught me by surprise."

"Sorry about that."

"No it's fine. What's up Jess?" Talking to him, Rory found it becoming extremely difficult to not almost long for him, to see him at least.

"I'm in town and I don't know, I though of you. Listen, if you're not busy then I thought we could get together sometime but if Yale has you too---"

"I'm free," Rory cut in, blurting, once again. As the seconds began to build, so did how good she was beginning to feel. "You're in town? I definitely have to see you then Jess. When did you have in mind?"

Lorelai was sitting silently beside her daughter, taking sips from the warm coffee Luke had poured her and wore a small smile at the fact that Rory was speaking with Jess. She knew the good that would do her, no need to intervene. Besides, sitting quietly she had the full right to eavesdrop.

"Do you think you could get away sometime today?" he said casually. "Maybe we could meet up in an hour. I'm entering Luke's Diner right now to visit him before---"

Jess suddenly stopped talking.

Slowly, Rory turned around on the stool and wore a pretty smile as she met eyes with him, standing in the doorway.

"Hey…" she said softly into the cell phone although there was no need to speak into it now. "Nice to see you."

Jess felt a smile forming on his own face as well. "Nice to see you too."


End file.
